GFDO Press Statement Reacting to the statement of former Goa CM and current Union Defence Minister Parrikar that “shifting the Navy from Dabolim will be anti national”, GFDO said that the Minister seems to be very confused in his thinking. Soon after his BJP government was elected to power in Goa in July 2012, Mr. Parrikar had on the floor of the Assembly said “I completely support the Army and Navy, but I cannot understand this possessive thing they have about land. This is not right. We will not give land for a naval enclave in Mopa.” If Mr. Parrikar did not feel it was anti national to refuse the Navy land for a Naval enclave in a new Greenfield airport that could be specifically designed to contain a Naval enclave without impinging on civilian operations, then why does the Defence Minister say that it is anti national to ask the Navy to move itself along with its golf courses, football playgrounds and residences out of an originally civilian brownfield, centrally located airport of Dabolim.?
In 1996, Parrikar’s former Environment Minister Matanhy Saldanha had written “The Goa government must stop acting like a stooge of the Central Government. The Goa government must demand that the present airport should be freed for free civilian use.” Some months ago, the then Chief Minister’s Forest and Environment Minister Alina Saldanha had stood on a public platform at Cansaulim and exhorted the people to unite and get the Navy out of Dabolim airport. Mr. Parrikar apparently wears different hats to wriggle out of different situations. The Defence Minister needs to explain to the people of Goa and India why he presided over the naming of the South Goa Collectorate after someone he has deemed “anti national”. Why did the Defence Minister, in his role as Goa’s Chief Minister, continue to keep a person he deemed “anti national” as his Cabinet Minister. In a person who holds the responsible position of the nation’s Defence Minister, these are serious ambiguities that cannot be overlooked and absolved. For GOANS FOR DABOLIM ONLY Fr. Eremito Convenor
